Dwelling at Maytree

This house is in essence a simple bold sculptural form which sits at the foot of a steep escarpment in the Wicklow hills. It is a two storey house with vehicular and pedestrian access from the Bray Road. Accommodation is comprised of a two car garage, boiler room, wc and utility at ground floor level and open plan living, kitchen, dining areas with 3 bedrooms (master ensuite), study and family bathroom at first floor level.
This house replaces a derelict 1940's single storey cottage (with associated out houses) which previously existed on the site. The building is entered on foot at first floor level via a long stepped processional route to the front of the building. The façade to this stepped approach has been purposely left blank to focus the entrant to the point of entry whilst also weighting the propped cantilever appropriately.
At entry level a hallway guides you to the open plan living kitchen and dining areas. These areas are contained within a propped cantilevered volume, which hovers above the landscape below. A forest of red columns has been inserted below the cantilever, which conceptually grow out of the hillside. These columns 'guard' a pedestrian route, which leads you under the cantilever to the rear garden and living room deck at first floor level. Along this route one truly experiences the sheerness of the escarpment above.
Internally the hallway at main entry level has been conceived as an "internal street" the dimensions of which widen to the more public aspects of the plan and diminish along the points of entry to private bedrooms and bathrooms. A study at main entry level offers a taste of the internal experience prior to entry. The roofscape is peppered with roof lights in an attempt to engage the user with the steep escarpment to the rear of the house. This affords the occupant vertical views of sky and foliage from the most private spaces within the house.

Note: ODOS architects are new and original architects from Ireland, whose work has reached a wider awareness even beyond the borders of this small country. The studio is focused primarily on smaller residential projects, refurbishments and interior design. But even seemingly smaller scale of their work draws more and more attention. The level of detail and finishing of the projects reaches rather the level of Swiss studios than sometimes skimped Irish contemporary buildings. Their architecture is always very photogenic and offer incredible details. The server Wallpaper selected ODOS among the group of 101 most exciting new architects (for Czech Republic were selected A69 and Franek architects)